Quote:
Originally posted by taxwonk
Here, let me test your allegiance to Hank. Find Israel's desire for peace in their statement that they are going to "bomb Lebanon back to 1982."
Israel gave up Gaza because they were forced to by political exigencies, not because they felt it would lead to peace.
|
From a human rights (and international rights) standard Israel should either give up the West Bank and Gaza or incorporate them and give all the residents the right to vote. The excuse that they need to control them for their own defense is the same excuse Russia used for holding on to Eastern Europe. You can't subject a whole land and its people for your own self defense. However, if they give Gaza and the West Bank self determination those areas will become immediate enemies bent on the destruction of Israel (because half of the people in those territories are either direct descendents of or are refugees from Israel proper). They are clearly going to want their homes back. If Israel incorporates the West Bank and Gaza then Israel will cease to be a Jewish majority state.
Actually if they really wanted to follow international law they should let all the Palestinians return to their homeland. I believe that 80 percent of the Jews in Israel are immigrants where almost all the Palestinian refugees in the camps are either from Israel proper or are direct descendents of people from Israel proper. However, that would obviously spell the end for Israel also. If they Arabs became a majority with a right to vote they would start kicking all the Jews out (or maybe worse).
So for a permanent solution to the problem, Israel is faced with the decision of either giving up and everyone return to the countries they came from (if that was even possible) or they need to expel all the Arabs out of the West Bank and probably Gaza (from a strategic stand point Israel is really not defensible without the West Bank).
Of course both of those solutions are not an option. So the place is going to remain totally screwed up for generations and that is why I like to pretend that the whole place just doesn't exist.
